Art makes nothing happen in a way that makes something happen.

Fashion is fickle, and I was published because I was fashionable. Because I was gay.

Then I saw her smile so close to my eye that there was nothing to see but the smile and the thought came into my head that I’d never been inside a smile before. Who’d have thought being inside a smile would be so ancient and so modern both at once

We'd never expect to understand a piece of music on one listen, but we tend to believe we've read a book after reading it just once.

But everything written has style. The list of ingredients on the side of a cornflakes box has style. And everything literary has literary style. And style is integral to a work. How something is told correlates with - more - makes what's being told. A story is its style.

Short stories consume you faster. They're connected to brevity. With the short story, you are up against mortality. I know how tough they are as a form, but they're also a total joy.

Every great narrative is at least two narratives, if not more - the thing that is on the surface and then the things underneath which are invisible.